KYAGULANYI: Giving up on elections benefits the NRM

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu has said the National Unity Platform, the party he leads as its president still believes in elections as one of the steps of the whole process through which to change government in Uganda.

Speaking today following the defeat of his party candidate Harriet Nakwede Kafeero in the Kayunga district chairperson by-election, Kyagulanyi said despite the blatant manipulation of results in favor of the ruling party candidate Andrew Muwonge, they will never give up participating in elections, because that is precisely what NRM wants  for the credible opposition to boycott elections and give it a free reign.

Kyagulanyi also still claims that the 2021 Presidential election was rigged in favor of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

Following a hotly contested by-election, the Electoral Commission on Friday last week declared Muwonge as the chairman elect for Kayunga having obtained 31,830 votes against Nakwede’s 31,380 votes.

However, NUP insists that their candidate should have been declared the winner having obtained 34,740 votes against Muwonge’s 20,367 votes according to their tally from declaration forms they obtained at polling stations.

Using this information, many of the NUP supporters commenting online have been wondering whether it still makes sense to participate in any election organized under the NRM.

But in his comments today while addressing journalists, Kyagulanyi said giving up on elections will instead benefit the NRM. He warned those in government that if people lose hope in peaceful means of changing government, they should brace for violence.

Asked why they would keep on participating in elections whose results they claim are already fixed, Joel Ssenyonyi, the spokesperson of NUP who is also the MP for Nakawa West said elections help them to expose the excesses of government. He added that eventually, such exposure will convince the people who still work or support President Museveni’s government to abandon him.

Meanwhile, Harriet Nakwede has revealed that she is going to court to challenge the decision of the Electoral Commission to declare Muwonge as the winner of the of Kayunga district chairperson election. Nakwede said that they have all the evidence to convince court to overturn the victory of Muwonge and instead declare her as the winner.

The Kayunga chairperson seat fell vacant after the death of Muhammad Ffeffeka Sserubogo who had been elected in January this year as the first opposition chairperson in the history of the district that was carved out of Mukono in 2000.

Sserubogo was found hanging on a tree at his home, but his death is still shrouded in mystery with some of his supporters claiming that he was assassinated and then hanged citing among others that his bare feet that were very clean yet the ground below was quit soggy, he couldn’t have taken himself to the tree. But police said he committed suicide.

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URN